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Ilya Podpolnyy has become the country’s unofficial ambassador for kayaking. (Ronit Shaked)
Kayaking for gold
on the Kinneret
The Jordan Valley Kayak Sprint
Club revives the tradition of
training an international cadre
of paddling champs
A
• By ORIT ARFA
t first, the Swiss national
champion in kayaking, Fabio Wyss, wasn’t sure if Israel would be a desirable place
to train for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He had
received the offer from Ilya Podpolnyy,
Israel’s hopeful for an Olympic medal,
after the two became friends at a competition in Italy. At the time, Operation
Protective Edge was raging on. But as the
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| FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015
harsh European winter set in, the drive
for an Olympic gold eventually made
him choose Israel over South Africa.
“We wanted to go somewhere for a
longer time, because we usually do training camps for two to three weeks in the
winter. This year is very important for
the Olympic Games,” Wyss says in the
lounge of the Jordan Valley Kayak Sprint
Club on the shores of Lake Kinneret,
right before their final Friday afternoon
training of this five-week-long camp.
With a slew of kayaks and paddles neatly
shelved in this warehouse space, which
also includes a gym, the club is well
equipped for Olympic-level training.
“It’s the warmest place within [a]
short distance,” Wyss continues.
“Also, the standard of living is very
close to the European standard – probably the same.”
Their German-born coach, Ingolf
Beutel, the national head coach in Switzerland for kayaking, was also hesitant
at first.
“You know what journalists do – they
make an elephant from a mosquito,”
Beutel says. “Sure, [Israel] is not like Europe, with [its] wars and such. A lot of
the time [the journalists] make it more
traumatic than it is.”
European paddlers are often in search
of warm winter training destinations.
Switzerland is only four hours away by
plane, with just one hour’s time difference, which made it easy for Wyss to
convince his Swiss teammate, Stefan
Domeisen, and the Finnish champ,
Miika Von Dietrich, to make the pilgrimage. They stayed at Kibbutz Deganya, which Wyss describes as safer than
many streets in Europe.
As Wyss and Domeisen take to the
calm Kinneret after the interview, with
the Golan Heights and palm trees surrounding them, it becomes clear that
training in the Galilee is not only ideal,
but idyllic.
“I like the sun the most. The warm
weather, the nice waves and the kibbutz
food,” says Von Dietrich, who has opted
out of training for the day. They train
seven days a week, and while they have
enjoyed community Shabbat dinners
at Kibbutz Deganya, the concept of one
day of rest has yet to penetrate their determined athletic psyches.
PODPOLNYY, 20, a Russian immigrant who arrived in Israel at age 15,
has become the country’s unofficial
ambassador for the sport. Inviting athletes from other countries to train in
Israel during the winter is a win-win
proposition for him. This past winter,
he also welcomed two Danish paddlers
(including Jewish European champion
From left: Swiss national champion Fabio Wyss, Israel’s Olympic hopeful Ilya
Podpolnyy and Russian national champ Ilya Medvedev. (Ronit Shaked)
Oryon Pilo) and Russian champion Ilya
Medvedev. The Swiss team is expected
to return next year.
“I see it as helping people,” says Podpolnyy. His sister lives in Haifa, but his
parents have remained in Russia. As a
lone soldier in the IDF with “outstanding athlete status,” he has special privilege to take time off to train.
“The athletes also come as my training partners,” he says. “I don’t have
partners who are on my level.”
The club’s head coach, Roie Lev, believes Podpolnyy will revive the country’s stature in the sport as it looks toward the 2020 Olympic Games. At the
Olympics, four out of the seven Israeli
medals have been in either canoeing
or sailing (the other three have been
in judo). Michael Kolganov took the
bronze for canoeing in Sydney 2000.
Lev recalls the international activity the club once enjoyed in the 1990s,
when it was rated as one of the best winter training destinations. Since 2005,
internal politics have made it less practical for international athletes to train
here. Lev is now keen on providing
added value for European and Russian
athletes so that the club once again becomes a training hub.
“We collaborate a lot during training,” says Lev. “We do joint exercises.
We create a social experience. We hang
out together, go out together. We just
had a barbecue.” He pulls out his smartphone, eager to show pictures of the
good times they’ve had.
The athletes tasted Tel Aviv’s famous
nightlife scene for one night, along
with a quick kayak in the Mediterranean, but most of the time has been
spent training on the pastoral kibbutz
near the lake.
“It’s very interesting for me to see this
country,” Wyss says. “Also, the people
are so open and friendly, and the nature
is amazing. I thought most of the country is desert – and I saw mostly green
country.”
Training in Israel is always a highlight
for Ilya Medvedev, the Russian champ
and Olympian competitor who joined
the Europeans for a few weeks.
“Two times we had good parties in
Kibbutz Deganya, and for us it was
great memories,” he tells Metro from
his home in St. Petersburg, apologizing
profusely for his broken English. But for
him, the parties at the kibbutz were balanced by the holiness of the land.
“The whole time when we had practice in the [Jordan] River, after that we
have very good conditions because [of]
this saintly, magic river,” he says, referring to the Jordan’s religious significance as the site of Jesus’s baptism.
Medvedev, who grew up Christian,
even attributes his European medals to
training in the Holy Land.
“When I don’t practice in Israel, I
don’t get medals,” he says.
Having just returned from Israel, he’s
optimistic: “This year, I hope we’ll win
medals, too.”
Jordan Valley Kayak Sprint Club was popular in the 1990s, but due to politics, its popularity has dipped since 2005. (Orit Arfa)
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